I can kind of see the dealership's perspective. If they get a limited allocation of them, why bother offering test drives? I'd rather have something on the showroom floor with 0-5 miles on it than something that has 100 of the hardest miles a car will ever see.

I can kind of see the dealership's perspective. If they get a limited allocation of them, why bother offering test drives? I'd rather have something on the showroom floor with 0-5 miles on it than something that has 100 of the hardest miles a car will ever see.

Ideally they should have a demo car. If there is enough demand they could still sell it for good money.

I can kind of see the dealership's perspective. If they get a limited allocation of them, why bother offering test drives? I'd rather have something on the showroom floor with 0-5 miles on it than something that has 100 of the hardest miles a car will ever see.

That and the endless parade of boy racers who want to come in for a "test drive" but have no real interest (or funds) in buying the car.

The best solution for the current business model is to have "drive days" sponsored by the marque, like BMW used to have, and Mazda and some of the others still do. You sign up for a time slot and drive one or more of the many models available over a prescribed course. No pressure to buy and no salesperson chattering away in the passenger seat.

bumping this thread. we just had a baby and need to get a bigger car than the Smart. most dealers in the bay area suck (asking 3-10k markup lol) but I was able to put a deposit down for a base model MT R in the pipeline at MSRP at Sunnyvale VW. Gonna go test drive one this weekend.